an economics scrapbook

The face of the river, in time, became a wonderful book . . . which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it had uttered them with a voice.
-- Mark Twain

I came across this article talking about how a bunch of good school furniture and electronics were found thrown away in a dumpster in Saint Louis, MO. The reason for the waste? $92K of “stimulus money” was allotted to buy new furniture for six schools in the district, so a little spring cleaning was in order.

District officials said it’s routine spring cleaning at the schools. But the disposal also comes as schools make room for upgraded equipment and technology funded by millions of dollars of stimulus funds from the federal government.

A question not raised in the article:WHAT THE HELL DOES NEW FURNITURE HAVE TO DO WITH STIMULATING THE ECONOMY?!!!

I am left very uncertain about the government’s ability to make any intelligent decision about how to spend our hard earned cash or create anything stimulating with the money we’ve forked over. Expect to see this recession linger on for a long time, folks.

(Incidentally, next time we decide to totally misdirect a bunch of stimulus money I’d like to see a little bit go the way of MY old classroom, where kids sit on broken chairs with mold growing out of the air conditioner and no cleaning staff other than me going in on a weekend twice a year. Thank you, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, for your hospitality.)